Arrow halts some well work after Qld gas leak

Arrow Energy has halted some work on its coal seam gas wells as it investigates what caused a major gas leak at a well west of Brisbane.

Arrow, owned by Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina, took just over 27 hours to plug the leak which was triggered by a sudden blowout of the well on Sunday morning.

Arrow Energy
had earlier advised it may take two or three days to cap the well, but completed the task late Monday morning by injecting dense drilling fluids into the well bore.

The leak occurred when contractors were preparing to install a pump in a well, about 25 kilometres west of Dalby, as they worked to bring it into production. The well had been drilled over 12 months ago but had been left incomplete.

After some initial checks, the well was uncapped to install a blowout preventer to allow the pump to be put in place. But before that could occur, water and gas began to burst to the surface, Arrow vice president of exploration Tony Knight told Financial Review ResourcesDaily.

Workers were moved to a safe distance, the site was secured and local emergency services were advised.

Mr Knight said that while an investigation has yet to be carried out, it appears that the water level in the well had dropped to a point where there was not enough pressure to keep the gas in.

“That’s something that we need to understand, what went on there," he said. “We actually had pumped some water into the well prior to uncapping it so we need to understand why that wasn’t adequate."

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Arrow has drilled about 100 wells in the Daandine area and this is the first time such a thing had occurred, Mr Knight said.

In the meantime, the company has halted similar work on well completion activities at a rig operating in the Bowen Basin until it understands why the blowout occurred. Arrow’s drilling and exploration work is unaffected, he added.

“I don’t see it will be a long-lived episode," Mr Knight said. “We’re very keen to resolve it ASAP."

Arrow said its investigation into the incident should take two weeks to complete and it will assist with any government review.

Friends of the Earth spokesman Drew Hutton says it was the fourth leak to happen on this property.

"Over the last 18 months we have seen pipeline blow-outs, gas migrations and well blow-outs in the Daandine-Wilkie Creek area," Mr Hutton said.

"How much longer do we have to put landowners' and workers' lives at risk in an unsafe industry?"

Queensland Mining Minister
Stirling Hinchliffe
told AAP there were no public health concerns because of the restrictions which have been put in place.

Mr Hinchliffe said investigators would looking into communication between the landholder, the company and authorities to see if correct protocols were followed.

"It's important for us to get to the bottom of this instance and be confident that the correct protocols and regulations were being observed," he said.